I’d love to hear in the comments what you came up with, and if you still think they’re good examples after reading the rest of the post.
For “low playing big”, I thought of a little kid (like five years old or something) acting all boasty and “adulty” with the kind of body language that would take up a lot of space if his body wasn’t so small in the first place. For “high playing small”, I actually thought of myself in some situations where I’m relatively high status.
The little-kid-one seemed pretty similar to your Neville example. And your description of Anna’s behaviors and people’s responses to them actually made me go, huh, yeah, that is how I often behave and how many people end up reacting in return.
(I seem to have a bit of an “aura of trustworthiness” that seems to make it easy for some people, including relative strangers, to open up and start telling me about their concerns. I remember one person in particular who I would often hang out with: she’d start talking about something that was on her mind, and after having spent 15 minutes explaining what was bothering her, she’d suddenly realize what she’d been doing and go “wait, why am I telling this to you?”, using pretty much literally those words. )
Also, when I saw that you’d chosen a picture of Anna for the “high playing small” thing, I found myself thinking yes, oh man, she’s a perfect choice for that one. :)
Oh yeah nice, little kid being brash is a great low/big. We haven’t met in person so I have no way of verifying your description of yourself, but it sounds reasonable to me.
I’d love to hear in the comments what you came up with, and if you still think they’re good examples after reading the rest of the post.
For “low playing big”, I thought of a little kid (like five years old or something) acting all boasty and “adulty” with the kind of body language that would take up a lot of space if his body wasn’t so small in the first place. For “high playing small”, I actually thought of myself in some situations where I’m relatively high status.
The little-kid-one seemed pretty similar to your Neville example. And your description of Anna’s behaviors and people’s responses to them actually made me go, huh, yeah, that is how I often behave and how many people end up reacting in return.
(I seem to have a bit of an “aura of trustworthiness” that seems to make it easy for some people, including relative strangers, to open up and start telling me about their concerns. I remember one person in particular who I would often hang out with: she’d start talking about something that was on her mind, and after having spent 15 minutes explaining what was bothering her, she’d suddenly realize what she’d been doing and go “wait, why am I telling this to you?”, using pretty much literally those words. )
Also, when I saw that you’d chosen a picture of Anna for the “high playing small” thing, I found myself thinking yes, oh man, she’s a perfect choice for that one. :)
Oh yeah nice, little kid being brash is a great low/big. We haven’t met in person so I have no way of verifying your description of yourself, but it sounds reasonable to me.